10 People Who Survived Gruesome Accidents Against All The Odds

We're a tough old bunch, us humans. Despite our seemingly squishy, defenseless forms, the human body is actually a truly amazing machine, capable of surviving the most horrific trauma. 

A good thing too, seeing as we also have a bit of a tendency to do stupid things with it, whether that be throwing ourselves out of moving planes or filling it with poisonous substances (known colloquially as 2-for-1 cocktails), we don't exactly take great care of our earthly forms.

In the natural world, if a wild animal so much as fractures a limb, it's pretty much curtains for them. Humans can shattered major bones, lose limbs, be impaled, shot, submerged in icy water and still be back at work on Monday. Granted, this is largely due to the fact that we've built ourselves great big hospitals full of drugs and doctors, but that in itself if a pretty impressive feat.

Our ability to survive injury is impressive to be sure, but there are some people that take this to a whole other level, with stories of survival that completely beggar belief. 

Whether through luck, medical magic or divine intervention, these people survived against all the odds and bounced back from the most terrifying accidents and injuries that, in by all rights, should have led them straight through those pearly gates.

In 2003, a construction worker named Rob Hunt was working up a rickety ladder with an enormous, powerful drill (a winning combination) and lost his balance.

As he fell, the universe saw fit to use him for a bit of target practice and drove the 18-inch long (45 cm), 1.5-inch diameter (4 cm) drill bit straight through his eye and out the back of his head.

When he got up, Ron didn't know how badly hurt he was until he felt for the damage and found mainly power tools where his face used to be. Adrenaline is pretty powerful stuff, it would seem because, at this point, Ron couldn't feel a thing.

When he arrived at the hospital there was, somewhat understandable, panic. Doctors were at a total loss as to what to do, not wanting to cause any further damage to Hunt's brain or nerves. Once they got him into surgery, someone had the brainwave of using the shape of the drill to their advantage and simply screwing the thing back out.

As if that wasn't enough, Hunt was in fact fully conscious for the procedure (with enough morphine coursing through him to knock out a T-Rex) and continued to joke with the doctors and prove just how un-brain damaged he was.

This was due to the fact that the drill had rather thoughtfully pushed his brain out the way on its merry way through Ron's head, meaning that he got away with damage to his eye and skull, but all of his faculties.